The exhibition James Turrell, Pasajes de luz (Passages of light), arrives in Mexico City on November 22nd and will be available through March 29, 2020 at Museo Jumex. A journey across the limits of human perception, defying the simple classification of the artistic canon.
The presentation shows the way in which light changes the environment, created fields saturated in color get a physical presence; this is achieved through a scientific comprehension of the effects of light mixed with the vision of the artist. Silent meditations on time and space are unavoidable, the purpose is for them to expand beyond the physical space of the museum, for the sky and celestial bodies to look earthly in the eyes of the spectator, thanks to the artist’s colossal structures.
Pasajes de luz will be distributed in two of the museum’s galleries, two large format installations offer a contrast between experience and the loss of horizon is produced both in the presence of light and darkness.
A Ganzfeld (experiment used within the field of parapsychology, which uses sensorial stimulation to produce a similar effect to sensory isolation) will be placed inside the gallery on the first floor and it is one of Turrell’s most important installations. The experience dissolves architecture through the use of “whole fields” of deep color. Dark Space is the piece created for the terrace of the gallery, which consists in providing the minimal amount of light so the images appear from within the visitor’s eyes. Together, they show two extremes that the artist describes as “seeing behind the eyes” or “watching yourself look”.
Gallery 2 will be dedicated to Turrell’s career, from his earliest experimental works, which he carried out in Los Angeles in 1960, to the large format installations in Museo Jumex. These were born in the artist’s studio at Mendota Hotel, where he started developing ways to control projected light, in order to create spaces (late 60’s and early 70’s).
These pieces will be joined by documents and models of Roden Crater, the artist’s masterpiece, project that seeks to turn an extinct volcano in Arizona, into an installation; he has been working on it for the past 45 years.
